I am not a musician so I can’t gauge how common these “mistakes” are in performance…but it makes me want to ask you: If you made five mistakes in a concert, how many notes did you play right? Thousands?

Thank you for posting this, Janet. I just saw the video earlier today and was amazed that women past their teens are struggling with such self-criticism of their appearance. It reminded me of hearing a tape of a concert I played, in my twenties, and noticing only that I had made five mistakes. When I heard it months later, I realized it was really a good performance, and that those five mistakes were nothing.

It seems that no matter the arena, we all to easily assume the role of our own worst critic. If we could only be taught compassion for our tender selves at a young age, in place of being taught how to judge and criticize.